


What if We Tried Again?

by penpenhooray



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: FAKING DEATHS, Failed Marriage, Fix-It, He's smarter than that, Hux doesn't die like a bitch, Kylo Ren Redemption, M/M, Miscarriage, Mpreg, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Previous Relationship, Reconciliation, Spy Armitage Hux, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, Starting Over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22124227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penpenhooray/pseuds/penpenhooray
Summary: "We've got our spy."Perhaps, but did Pryde bother to check if he was actually dead?Armitage Hux may be many things, but a fool was not one of them. So rather than stay with the First Order and watch it burn, Hux decides that faking his death would be preferable, leaving him free to tie up his one loose end.His ex-husband, Kylo Ren.But what happens when Ren...isn't quite Ren anymore, but just as "dead" as Hux? What happens if they face their feelings surrounding their failed marriage?What if they dared to try again?
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 12
Kudos: 346





	What if We Tried Again?

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, it feels good to post Kylux again!
> 
> Now, as someone who holds Spy Hux close to her heart, I was...quite annoyed with The Rise of Skywalker. And if you were someone who enjoyed Wake Up, Sleeper, maybe you were too. So I thought I'd make a little fic with Spy Hux not being a bumbling fool and dying like a bitch.
> 
> I'm not sure if this will stay a one shot, or if it will be something more, we shall see!

_ “We’ve found our spy.” _

It was rather insulting, how long he was left on the floor after Pryde had shot him. Even if it hadn’t been a matter of his wounded dignity, there was still the matter of cleanliness. Really, leaving a dead body in a public workplace for an extended period of time? Must be a bad habit Pryde carried over from his time with the Empire.

Kriffin’ relic.

But Hux knew that even Pryde wouldn’t gloat over his dead body for too long, and soon enough, former General Armitage Hux found himself being tossed onto a transport, along with a slew of other nameless, faceless Stormtroopers, on its way to the incinerator. It seemed Pryde had no intentions of having Hux’s body delivered to his home planet.

Exactly as he had predicted.

Armitage Hux had become one of, if not the youngest general in the First Order’s history, and one didn’t manage that without a few very specific skills. Namely, being able to lie, and being able to think ahead. 

It would have been all too easy to create a convincing lie to fool Pryde, carry on his ruse as a spy in the First Order. But that wouldn’t have served his purposes. The war was coming to an end, either with the First Order (or the Final Order, whichever it was) would be in utter ruins to be picked off by the Resistance, or it would conquer the galaxy with a man like Pryde at the helm.

Hux wanted nothing to do with either scenario. So thus, better to let Pryde think he had killed him. 

It hadn’t been difficult to secure suitable armor, Hux had saved plenty of pieces when he had been tasked with sorting through Captain Phasma’s personal effects. And while Hux had never been much of a spiritual man, he couldn’t help but think the woman was smirking from wherever she was in the afterlife, happy to give one last middle finger to the dregs of the Empire. Slipping on one of her chest plates beneath his uniform before hobbling to Pryde and presenting his bumbling lie had been simple. And Pryde had been so caught up in catching the ‘spy’ that he hadn’t even bothered to check if Hux was actually dead.

Idiot.

Once in the incinerator room, it was simply a matter of rolling off the conveyor belt before being thrown into the incinerator. The air was hot and rank with the smell of burning flesh, metal, and armor, but there was simply nothing for it but to endure. It would hardly be the worst thing he had endured in his life. It wouldn’t even make the top ten.

The former general made quick work of striping out of his uniform and removing the now-scorched piece of armor with a final thought of thanks to his closest friend. His clothes beneath his uniform were simple, in fact they were the suits TIE pilots and Stormtroopers wore under their gear.

Speaking of such, Hux had no shortage of Stormtrooper armor surrounding him. And, if one were frank, no one paid attention to Stormtroopers.

* * *

General Armitage Hux was nothing if not a strategist, always plotting four, five, six steps ahead of anyone else. His mind was always searching for the weakness in any opponent, the best angle to work, the best way to crush his enemy under his boot.

But General Armitage Hux was dead, and he… he was sitting in the cockpit of a TIE fighter, which he barely understood how to fly, descending over the pitch black surface of Exegol. The ruins of crashed Star Destroyers littered the already morbid planet, and Hux couldn’t help but smile at the thought that Pryde’s own burned and broken body would be somewhere around that wreckage.

It was perfectly acceptable for Pryde to be there. The real question was, why was Hux there?

No matter how many times he asked himself that question, he couldn’t for the life of him form a convincing enough lie, even to himself. Even as he landed next to the other TIE, Armitage Hux couldn’t lie to himself that there were simply some things he could not escape.

* * *

Everything hurt. Everything. Kriffin’. Hurt.

Between Palpatine draining him dry and tossing him about like a piece of garbage, and his efforts to save Rey and “die,” Ben could confidently say he was well and truly spent. It wouldn’t surprise him if he never felt the Force again.

It had taken every last vestige of his strength to return Rey’s own life force to her through a Force projection. If it had been any other person in the galaxy, he might not have been able to do it. But his better half? He had managed it, though his strength had run out before he expected, leaving his ‘death’ to appear quite rushed.

Luckily for him, Rey seemed to accept his death relatively easily.

But now came the hard part: getting off Exegol.

It took far longer than he would have liked to hobble, stumble, and crawl his way out of the Sith temple. Every time he thought he had control of himself, his legs would give out from under him, or some pain in his back would flare up, and he was forced to lean on or support himself on rocks or ruins. But he just needed to get to his ship. If he could get to his ship, he would be able to rest, he could focus on flying...somewhere.

He must have taken more damage than he anticipated, because Ben could have sworn he saw double as he got closer to the TIE. For a brief moment, he thought that perhaps Rey had stayed behind, before he remembered that she had flown an old X-Wing, not a TIE.

But then one of the TIE’s hatch began to open, and Ben could see a Stormtrooper stepping out to approach him.

A Stormtrooper with no helmet and perfect red hair.

“Hux?” Ben found himself asking, not quite sure if he believed what his eyes were seeing. And it was at that moment that his damned legs would fail to hold his weight once more, and he crumpled to the ground once more.

"Ren!"

Ben looked up to see Hux rushing toward him, kneeling at his side as he helped him back to his feet.

"Kriff, you're heavy..." Hux muttered, "What in the hell have you gotten yourself into this time, Ren?"

"...Ben." Ben said softly as the two of them stumbled toward the TIE. "Please...call me Ben."

Hux raised an eyebrow, but said nothing on the matter as they worked together to the TIE. Once they managed it, Ben all but flopped onto the floor of the TIE, nearly hitting his head against the discarded Stormtrooper helmet.

Ben picked up the helmet, weakly holding it up, "Did Pryde demote you?"

Hux rolled his eyes, "Idiot..." He muttered, stepping into the TIE after him, "Pryde shot me."

Blinking, Ben pushed himself into a sitting position, "Are you alright?"

"As if you care."

"Of course I care, Hux..." The rest of his protest died in his throat. He didn't have any room to protest Hux's well being. And judging by the withering glare Hux was leveling at him, the redhead was well aware of that. So Ben changed topics, "Why did you come for me?"

"Someone has to keep you from killing yourself." Hux replied simply, although there was absolutely nothing simple about his words, or the question at hand.

Ben looked up at Hux, carefully taking in each angle and crisp line. He was slightly disheveled, not like Hux in the slightest, "You could have left me for dead, Armitage." He said gently, "Not a soul would have known, let alone judged you." 

Ben could see Hux's grip on the TIE's controls tighten slightly, and the redhead refused to look at him. He could have pressed him more, asked him his real motives for rescuing him. But what would the point be?

"Thank you, Armitage. For coming for me." He said gently, "I know it wasn't easy for you."

Hux's grip on the controls was now nearly white knuckle, which was amazing to Ben because Hux had forgone his gloves.

"I can fly us, Armitage." Ben added, making as if to stand once more, "I know you hate flying..."

"You're in no state to fly, Re-- Ben." Hux replied, "You couldn't even walk without falling apart, I do not trust you to fly us out of the Unknown Regions of space."

He had a point there. But nonetheless, Ben kept a careful eye on Hux as the redhead piloted the now-cramped TIE off planet. Flying had always been Ben's strong point, so being a passenger for someone else wasn't ideal for him. But being a backseat pilot would be the worst thing he could do for Armitage as he piloted their way through the hazards that surrounded Exegol, not just because the other man would need all of his wits about him to pilot safely, but because Ben knew that Armitage's nerves were already more raw than usual.

So for several minutes, if not an hour or more, they were in silence.

It was only when they were in open space that Ben spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Armitage."

* * *

“I’m sorry, Armitage.”

Armitage wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to those words coming from Kylo Ren's lips, or rather, Ben's lips. Was he supposed to feel vindicated? Self righteous? Relieved? "What are you sorry for?"

"I know I'm the reason our marriage failed." 

Of all the things he expected to hear from the man, that had not been anywhere on the radar. Unbidden, thoughts of them smiling to one another behind closed doors, kissing when they were off shift, planning for the future-- No, he couldn't bear to think about that.

"I had no right to treat you the way I did." Ben continued, "I had made a vow to love and protect you, and yet I raised my hand to hurt you multiple times." 

Armitage had does his best to block out the memories surrounding the attack on Krait. When everything had fallen apart around their heads. He blinked quickly to banish dust that had begun to cloud his vision. 

"I'm sorry about the baby."

Ice ran through Armitage's veins at the mention of his darkest moments. "You don't get to speak about her!" He hissed, turning his head to glare at the other man, "You threw me against a wall, Ren! You threw me in one of your tantrums, and we lost our baby!"

Ben at least had the decency to appear ashamed of himself, though that did little to ease the twisting in his heart as Armitage tried to banish the memories of limping to his quarters after Krait, only to be faced with blood...so much blood.

"I know." Ben said weakly, "and if I could, I would go back and change it all... but I can't. And I know I have no right to ask you to forgive me."

"You're damn right you don't!" Armitage's voice cracked, to his shame, "You don't get to do this to me!"

"You're right, I don't...I'm sorry for upsetting you...I'm sorry for all of it." Ben whispered, bringing his knees up to his chest, resting his elbows there. He looked like a child, an overgrown child.

It wasn't fair, this oaf of a man wasn't supposed to stir things inside him he had long since smothered.

"I was the spy." The words came out of his mouth before Armitage could stop them.

Ben gave him a weak smile, "I know."

He frowned, "You knew? Why didn't you...?"

The rest of his sentence trailed off as he and Ben shared looks. Armitage had come to know the various emotions that were held in those dark eyes of his former husband. And there had been many nights when Armitage would look into Kylo Ren's eyes and marvel at the depth of feeling that was directed to him.

Ben sighed, "I never stopped loving you, Armitage. " He whispered, "Even if I couldn't be a good husband to you, I could never have turned you in." He shook his head, "Besides...it was the very least I could give you...I couldn't stop Pryde and his ilk from taking over the First Order...but I could allow you one last chance to spite them."

Armitage grit his teeth at the mention of Pryde, a harsh reminder of his father, of the old Empire. Bastards, the lot of them. "Then why did you put me on the spot during the meeting?"

He shrugged, "I wanted to hear your witty quips about the mask." He admitted, "...I always loved your dry sense of humor."

"Your mask looked like it was glued together by a drunken monkey." Armitage muttered to himself, "Or a young child.

"I know." Ben admitted, a small smile tugging on his lips, "Most of my masks were shoddily made... nothing like yours...yours were always works of art." 

“Please, don’t.” Armitage shook his head, “I’m...tired.”

"There's no one to pretend to now, Armie." Ben whispered, "We're both dead."

For some reason, Armitage found himself smiling, though he wasn't sure if it was from Ben's use of nickname, or at the realization that they were dead to the universe. No one would be looking for them, and even if there were people looking for their bodies, there was no hope of any evidence of their remains being found. 

They were free. Both of them.

"What do we do now?"

He wasn't sure why he asked it, and he wasn't sure what exactly he meant by the question. But he was pulled from his thoughts by a warm touch on his hand. Looking down, Armitage was surprised to see Ben had also forgone his gloves, and that it was only just then that he had noticed it. They were larger than Armitage's, always had been, his fingers calloused and his nails broken and caked in grime. Regardless of all that, they were warm and they were comforting.

"I don't think I've ever seen you for want of a plan, Armie." Ben smiled softly. 

Armitage sat up slightly in the pilot's seat, "I always have a plan." He murmured. Just not then.

"I guess we'll just take things one step at a time." Ben murmured.

It was an awful way to approach things, only focusing on what was directly in front of their noses. But...for want of an actual plan... "Step one would be finding a place to land." He said. "Preferably a place where we can secure food, water, shelter--"

"And that won't ask questions about a TIE fighter." Ben finished, nodding absently, "Outer Rim would be a good place to start. There won't be a lot of investigations so soon after this battle...the Resistance will be celebrating for several days."

Armitage raised an eyebrow at the insight, but he had to admit Ben’s reasoning was sound, “And what about after that? I don’t know about you, but I hardly had a steady influx of credits. We will need to find a source of income.”

“There’s the Armie I know and love.” Ben whispered softly, smiling, “Well, we can do some manual labor for a while, just to get some funds together...then...we find something we can do long term.”

“ _ We _ can do long term?” Armitage found himself asking before he could stop himself, and doing his best to ignore the flutter in his chest at the thought.

Ben nodded, “I thought...I dunno, if we’re starting our lives over...maybe we could try again?”

Try again… it could be utterly disastrous, just like the first time. But then again...why had he made the effort to find his ex husband if he didn’t, somewhere in the back of his traitorous mind, care for him?

“We’ll have to find something we can do long term.” He found himself repeating. “Something we can both excel at.”

Ben hummed, “Fancy opening a cantina?”

At Armitage’s glare, Ben raised both hands defensively, “Joking, joking…” He murmured, “There’s always bounty hunting…”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! I love hearing your thoughts!


End file.
